Applied Materials, Inc.

Yi Zhou

Rajinder Dhindsa

Sunil Srinivasan

Changhun Lee

Seul Ki Ahn

Seung-Young Son

Li-Te Chang

Jared Ahmad Lee

Martin Jeffrey Salinas

Danny Chien Lu

Mukul Khosla

Yangchung Lee

Xinyue Chen

A method for removing etchant byproduct from an etch reactor and discharging a substrate from an electrostatic chuck of the etch reactor is provided. One or more layers on a substrate electrostatically secured to an electrostatic chuck within a chamber of the etch reactor is etched using a first plasma, causing an etchant byproduct to be generated. A portion of the one or more layers are covered by a photoresist. After the etching is complete, a second plasma is provided into the chamber for a time period sufficient to trim the photoresist and remove a portion of the etchant byproduct. A second time period sufficient to electrostatically discharge the substrate using the second plasma is determined. Responsive to deactivating one or more chucking electrodes of the electrostatic chuck, the second plasma is provided into the chamber for the second time period and the substrate is removed from the chamber.

Integrated cleaning process for substrate etching

Methods of semiconductor processing may include performing a first plasma treatment within a processing chamber to remove a first carbon-containing material. The methods may include performing a second plasma treatment within the processing chamber to remove a first silicon-containing material. The methods may include depositing a second silicon-containing material on surfaces of the processing chamber. The methods may include depositing a second carbon-containing material overlying the second silicon-containing material.

Chamber processes for reducing backside particles

A method for removing etchant byproduct from an etch reactor and discharging a substrate from an electrostatic chuck of the etch reactor is provided. A substrate may be electrostatically secured to an electrostatic chuck within a chamber of an etch reactor. A first plasma may be provided into the chamber to etch the substrate, causing an etchant byproduct to be generated. After the etching is complete, a second plasma may be provided into the chamber, wherein the second plasma is an oxygen containing plasma. The etchant byproduct may be removed and the first substrate may be discharged using the second plasma. The first substrate may be removed from the chamber and a second substrate may be inserted into the chamber without first performing an in-situ cleaning between the removal of the first substrate and the insertion of the second substrate.

Embodiments of the invention generally relate to methods of removing and/or cleaning a substrate surface having refractory metal portions disposed thereon using water vapor plasma treatment. In one embodiment, a method for cleaning a surface of a substrate includes positioning a substrate in a processing chamber, the substrate having a refractory metal disposed thereon, forming a process gas comprising water vapor, maintaining a process pressure in the processing chamber above about 0.5 Torr, forming a plasma in the process gas to form an activated water vapor and exposing the refractory metal to the activated water vapor.

Methods of non-destructive post tungsten etch residue removal

Methods and apparatus for determining proper placement of a substrate upon a substrate support in a process chamber are disclosed. In some embodiments, a method for detecting substrate placement in a process chamber includes placing a substrate on a support surface of a substrate support within the process chamber; modifying a pressure within the chamber to create a detection pressure within the chamber; sensing a first temperature of the substrate support; monitoring a thermal response characteristic of the substrate support after placing the substrate on the substrate support; comparing the thermal response characteristic to a predetermined response characteristic; and determining whether the substrate is placed correctly based upon the comparison of the thermal response characteristic to the predetermined response characteristic.

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Fremont, CA, United States of America

Yi Zhou